Seroprevalence and Risk Factors Associated with HTLV-I/II Infection in Injection Drug Users in Northern New Jersey

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Data from an AIDS Demonstration Research project in Paterson, NJ, that enrolled out-of-treatment injection drug users (IDUs) were analyzed to detect demographic patterns and risk factors associated with infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human T-lymphotropic virus types I or II (HTLV-I/II). Of 410 IDUs screened, 44.2% were HIV-positive and 19.3% were HTLV-I/II-positive. African-Americans were significantly more likely than other racial groups to be HTLV-I/II-seropositive and to be HIV-seropositive. Over one-fifth of African-Americans--but no Latinos or whites--were doubly infected with HIV and HTLV-I/II. In logistic regression analysis, African-American race, long-term injection drug use, and age were significant predictors of HTLV-I/II-seropositivity. While the associations between recent needle practices and HTLV-I/II-seropositivity fell short of significance, the trends in the data were consistent with a hypothesis that HTLV-I/II is transmitted through the sharing of injection equipment. Public health implications of the data are discussed.